1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fitting tool for fitting a liquid absorber for absorbing liquid in a cap included in a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer and a method of fitting a liquid absorber using the fitting tool.
2. Related Art
Generally, as a liquid ejecting apparatus for ejecting ink (liquid) from a nozzle opening formed in a recording head (liquid ejecting head) to a target, for example, an ink jet printer (hereinafter, referred to as a printer) is widely known. In such a printer, generally, the recording head is cleaned for the purpose of suppressing clogging of the nozzle opening due to thickened ink and for discharging the ink, in which air bubbles or dust is mixed, from the nozzle of the recording head. In this cleaning process, thickened ink or ink, in which air bubbles are mixed, is sucked and discharged by sucking the cap in a state of contacting the cap so as to surround the nozzle opening of the recording head. In the cap, generally, an ink absorber (liquid absorber) for absorbing a portion of the ink sucked and discharged from the nozzle opening at the time of the cleaning process is received.
A printer including a cap in which an ink absorber is received is disclosed in JP-A-2000-62202. In the printer disclosed in JP-A-2000-62202, a cap member (cap) is received in a cap holder and an ink absorber is received in the cap member. Five pins which are inserted into insertion holes formed in the cap member and through-holes formed in the ink absorber are erected on the inner bottom surface of the cap holder and front ends (top ends) of the pins protrude from the upper surface of the ink absorber upward. By thermally caulking a pressing plate to the front ends of the pins, the pressing plate and the ink absorber are fixed in the cap member.
However, in the printer disclosed in JP-A-2000-62202, when the ink absorber is fitted into the cap member, since the pressing plate is thermally caulked to the front ends of the pins, the operation for fitting the ink absorber is cumbersome. In particular, if the ink absorber is thin and small, the ink absorber is susceptible to being deformed when the ink absorber is fitted into the cap member. Accordingly, the fitting operation becomes difficult or the thermal caulking device is not introduced into the cap member.